Author's Note:
Here's some fluff I wrote while in transit. I wanted to explore the earlier years of my characters' lives, so these are all set before The Reluctant Hero, the story where Cole and Nat originally made their debut. My writing here is a tad rougher than what I usually put out, but I hope you'll still find it interesting.
Inspired by RockstarVienna/Aestheticisms. You are long-gone and will never see this, but thank you for everything.
1. Fortress
"What's your name?" she asked as Cole turned away. He was a stoic child, a fortress of a kid who kept others locked out. Natalie, on the other hand, was a bright-eyed girl intent on solving this new puzzle, this enigma of a boy who lived next door. She wouldn't leave him alone. She never shut up. At some point, Cole had enough, and he struck her, a girl half his size and two years his junior. It was the first and last time he would ever do so—his father made absolutely certain of it—but Nat would have kept bothering him regardless.
2. Determined
"What's your favorite color?" Nat asked. "Mine's purple!"
Cole ignored her and continued poking at the pill bug with his stick. No matter how many times he flipped it over, the little bug kept righting itself, seemingly determined to keep moving forward but not really in a hurry to do so.
"Do you have a favorite color, Cole?"
"Orange."
Nat beamed. "The color of my hair!"
3. Together
Razorback Falls was a boring town to grow up in. Unapologetically rural, the small town's rolling hills and sprawling fields hid few secrets. What you saw was what you got. The Leoideas were one of the town's many families that had staked a claim on the land during the tumultuous years of the Great War. Cole was the next generation's eldest son, in line to inherit the farm after his parents.
"Watch carefully, Cole. I'm gonna show you how to harvest a pearl."
The son dutifully watched his father handle an oyster. Behind them, Nat sat on a hay bale, watching just as intently. For a daughter of simple shopkeepers, Nat picked things up surprisingly fast. From hitting a baseball to firing a handgun, she managed to keep up with the older boy.
Cole, for his part, had no problems with that. He would be the brawn, and she would be the brains. He was quiet and introspective, whereas she looked outward to the mysteries of the world. He was the anchor, and she was the ship, and together they'd go on many adventures.
4. Normal
He wasn't a mean person, Nat came to understand. Cole just didn't like to share his thoughts. And knowing that only made her dig deeper. Meanwhile, Cole tried his best to shake her off, hiding behind trees and pretending to not hear when she called his name. But over the weeks and months, he got used to her constant blabbing. Her presence soon became a normal part of his life. In fact, when Nat wasn't around, he even felt compelled to go seek her out himself, knocking on the Tilus family's front door.
5. Tumble
Nat's parents were immigrants, and they ran a hardware store. When Nat had to help her parents and couldn't come out to play, Cole would help them, too.
"Careful, now," Papa Tilus cautioned as Cole hefted a crate of bolts out of the delivery truck. Natalie trailed behind them, dragging a sack of rice.
"Too heavy!" Nat squeaked.
With a grunt, Cole turned around, bent over, and began pulling on the sack of rice while still carrying his crate. He tripped, sending the crate in his arms into a tumble and spilling its contents all over the ground.
6. Dark
Nat skipped along the path, stopping briefly at the creek. Several rocks sat above the surface of the water, making a series of stepping stones that crossed the stream. She jumped from rock to rock until she caught up to Cole, who was lumbering along at a steady pace. His long strides made it hard for her to keep up.
"You afraid of anything?" Nat questioned.
"No," Cole answered.
"Not even the dark?"
"...A little."
7. Backpack
Nat couldn't wait to start school. Cole would be starting third grade while she was just entering first. With a hop and a skip, she ran out the door and down the street to the bus stop, where Cole was already standing.
"You forgot your backpack," he noted.
8. Purple
"Give 'em back!" Nat cried as an older student shoved her back. He had swiped the flowers that she picked in the morning right out of her hands, and he was plucking the petals off one-by-one with a sneer on his face. They were her favorite kind of flowers, too, the little purple ones with a yellow center.
The boy suddenly lurched backward and dropped the flowers, a fist lodged into his gut. His eyes bulged, and Cole used his other hand to push the kid onto the ground. Those who hit girls deserved the worst, his father had once told him, and Cole readied a kick to the downed child's side when his teacher grabbed him by the arms. Nearly lifting him off the ground, she dragged him back into the school building.
Nat picked herself up and watched her friend go. When Cole got angry, he was a monster. But he was her monster.
9. Silent
"Ever kissed anyone?" Nat asked out of the blue.
"No."
"You wanna?"
Cole remained silent. Under his thick winter hood, he pulled his chin down to better hide his face.
10. Accuracy
Both of Cole's parents loved the shooting range, and they often took their sons plus Natalie along with them. No matter what they were shooting with, Nat was always just slightly better than Cole. Not that Cole was a bad shot or anything, he just couldn't match her impeccable accuracy. With handguns, Nat almost never missed the mark. Nobody was that good, especially if they used that piece of garbage pistol she always insisted on bringing. It was honestly the ugliest piece of junk Cole had ever seen.
11. Class
"What's your favorite class?" asked Nat.
"Recess."
"Me too."
12. Shade
In the summertime, they'd spend the hottest afternoons sitting under the shade of an overgrown cypress tree. Sometimes, Nat would fall asleep on Cole's shoulder. He didn't mind it at all. But one time, Cole fell asleep on Nat's shoulder, and she got pinned to the ground under his weight.
13. Sorrow
They came across a dead bird in the forest, a small one that had just barely made it out of her mother's nest. Cole bent over to take a look at it. He said nothing for almost a whole minute. Natalie saw sorrow in his dull, blue eyes, which pained her even more than the little bird itself. Not really knowing what to do, she hugged him from behind, hoping that the gesture would help at least a little bit.
14. Sports
Nat sent a kickball flying through the air and right into Cole's face. He stumbled sideways with a yelp.
"You're really bad at sports," she jabbed.
"Shut up!"
15. Tests
Nat didn't feel like she was really trying in school. In fact, she spent most of her time napping or making up stories in her head. But every teacher showered her with endless praise, commending her "good effort" and "excellent behavior." The tests were just easy. Nothing challenged her.
Cole was a different story. He had resigned himself to falling behind. He barely maintained passing grades. Nobody ever made sure that he was on track, and he didn't care enough to ask for help. His teachers rarely bothered him, at least, and he got to see Nat. That was good enough for him.
16. Running
Cole began running every morning, and Nat followed suit. They took a nice, scenic path that followed the creek up the hill and to the edge of the woods, looping back around to the empty fields that surrounded their homes. Running was an invigorating way to start the day. Cole used the hour to clear his head, and Nat used it to get her gears turning.
17. Future
"Do you ever wonder what you'll do after you graduate?" Nat asked.
"No," he answered. It wasn't that Cole never thought about his future, it was just that he had already decided to follow in his parents' footsteps. He would be an oyster farmer, like his father before him and his father before him.
"I wanna be a professional athlete."
"But you're so small."
"That oughta make it all the more satisfying when I win!"
18. Race
Nat wiggled her toes, feet on the starting block, and waited for the signal. She was the youngest one here and not far from the best. She would win this one today, no matter what. The 400 meter was her specialty.
In the bleachers, Cole sat sandwiched between a senior who was checking his phone and a mother who had started cheering and whooping when the race began. Cole wasn't really one to cheer, himself, but he came out to every single one of Nat's track meets. He wouldn't miss one for the world.
19. Dream
"Sometimes I dream about flying," Nat said. "But I never know how to land."
Cole nodded, though he had never had any such dreams himself.
"Sometimes, I also dream about being able to run real fast and phase through buildings all ghost-like. But I can't ever seem to stop."
20. Dumb
He slammed his fist on the table in frustration. Math was stupid. He was stupid.
Nat was even less patient and even more impulsive than him, but her temper was better and her mind was sharper. Helping Cole in school was her duty, she believed, the one way she could look out for him and do something in return. Besides, she was the only person who could calm him down and make him listen. He took her more seriously than he took his actual teachers.
Cole didn't see things that way, however. He felt like a burden. He felt like he was holding his best friend back. She was smart enough to skip a year, and he was dumb enough to get held back—why should she have to deal with those who were clearly beneath her?
21. Bedroom
Noddy passed by the door to his brother's bedroom when he heard Natalie's voice.
"Agh! C-Cole!" she screamed.
Noddy ran down the hall. "Nico, Nico! Where are you?! Cole and Nat are doing each other!"
In truth, Nat had merely stepped on a splinter and called for Cole's help.
22. Hoagies
"I was thinking about hoagies and how they're totally sandwiches. But they're really closer to hot dogs than sandwiches because of their shape. So would hot dogs be sandwiches, then?"
"No. Wait... I don't know."
23. Target
One time at the shooting range, he accused her of cheating, and Nat let him use her old, beat-up pistol for a round. Cole couldn't even hit a single target, and he never accused her of cheating again.
24. Girly
"Heard of the Squid Sisters?"
"No."
"They're amazing! Listen here!" Nat promptly took out one of her earbuds and plugged it into Cole's ear. It was a nice song, he had to admit, in a cute kind of way.
"Too girly," he deadpanned.
"Come on, I saw you smile! I know you like it, too!"
25. Pain
She came to him in tears. She had a bruise on one cheek, and her long, orange hair was a mess. No backpack. Cole hugged her close, but he was seething with rage on the inside. Somebody deserved some serious pain today. Somebody dumb enough to touch Nat. Somebody big, probably.
"Who?" he growled.
26. City
"What do you think the city looks like, Cole?"
"Dunno."
"I wanna go there after I graduate."
27. Stay
They sat in silence under the starlight for a few minutes, until Nat broke the silence.
"I wish you was graduating with me," she said.
Cole didn't know how to respond, so he continued staring up at the night sky. Nat had skipped forward yet another grade, so there was no way that would have even been possible.
"Just you watch, I'm gonna become the best Turf War player the world has ever seen!"
He nodded, biting the inside of his cheek and suppressing the urge to speak. Normally, keeping his mouth shut was easy. It was his default state. But tonight, he wanted nothing more than to beg her to stay with him in the Falls. He didn't want her to move to Inkopolis, but what right did he have to impose his will on her? Nat was a prodigy, and he was a dropout.
28. Hygiene
Nat did a pretty awful job of taking care of herself, Cole thought to himself as he folded up her dirty laundry. Shirts and pants lay strewn about her room, clean indistinguishable from unwashed. Despite being a genius, she really had no clue sometimes, especially when it came to basic hygiene. At least she showered sometimes. He looked under her bed, finding a half-finished bag of popcorn. How long had that been there?
29. Stuck
Three days later, Nat boarded a train and left Razorback Falls. The first few weeks were the easiest; Cole knew how to stay busy and avoid worrying about the things that bothered him. He stuck to his daily routine, waking up every morning before sunrise, going for a run, helping his brothers clean out the pen, preparing breakfast... there was always plenty to do.
But every now and then, he'd find himself thinking she was still around. He'd pass by her house and swear that he could see her leaping out the front door of the shop. He'd round a street corner expecting her to pop out and scare him. He'd visit the shooting range and mistake someone else for Nat, but they'd always be a bit too tall, their posture a bit off, their form not quite right.
Every night, he would send her a few messages and wait for her response. Most days, she'd toss one back, and sometimes she'd even call him, but every now and then, Nat would be completely silent. Those days made him feel stuck. He wanted to talk to her more. He wanted to be the one calling her, but he didn't want to bother her. He didn't want to seem weird or nagging, but he also wanted to check up on her. Thus, he felt stuck. Cole hated that feeling. Without a ship to hold down, the anchor was pretty useless.
30. Genuine
Without her anchor, the ship couldn't stop. Nat's first year in the city led her to the NSS, the Octarians, and a life of secrets—a far cry from the professional Turf War she had originally planned to play. She was learning how to break an arm one minute and stalking an Octarian terrorist the next. According to Captain Cuttlefish, she was a natural, the perfect agent. Natalie Tilus was the hero they needed to fight a war that had since gone underground. Sure, she was putting her life on the line, but Agent 3 enjoyed the thrill of the hunt. There was nothing quite like real danger and real consequences. This was fulfilling. This was genuine. This was amazing.
31. Worried
"Cole, you done heard from Nat recently?" Mrs. Tilus asked.
Cole jumped down from the stepladder, having finished stocking the store shelves. He thought for a moment, then shrugged. "Not since Tuesday."
"She ain't answerin' her cellphone," Mrs. Tilus said, furrowing her brow. "A little strange, if you ask me. She always takes my calls."
Cole nodded and got to work checking the next shelf. Nat's silence was nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to be worried about. Things had been going smoothly for the past two years, after all.
Or so he thought.
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